Educational Software
Labdoo.org uses:
- Educational software suitable for students of all ages (from preschool to high school)
- Add-ons to provide barrier-free access for blind or handicapped users
- Offline wikis and manuals so that educational content can be accessed even without Internet connection
- Virus scanner ClamAV and other tools
Labdoo laptops are not limited to the default programs and tools provided by the Ubuntu operating system. By installing the prepared Labdoo images for Cloning or the installation scripts you can add more useful educational content. You can also download additional software by using the Ubuntu Software Center if your laptop is connected to the Internet.
If you have any questions on how to use these applications, please ask them to the Labdoo Global Support team as explained in the following page: https://www.labdoo.org/content/what-if-i-want-receive-aid-lgs-support-teamu.
- Educational software
- Game Collections
- Gcompris
- Astronomy and Geography
- Graphic and Construction Software
- Mathematics and Statistics
- Physics
- Games
- Language Learning
- Keyboard trainer
- Music
- Office Applications
- Kiwix, Xowa, Kolibri Offline reader and tools for educational content
Each Labdoo device comes with educational software for children of all ages. There is educational materials for levels from preschool to high school. The computer is also equipped with barrier-free access to help handicapped or blind users.
Edubuntu is a collection of free educational programs that volunteers and developers around de world put together. Below you can find a brief description on some programs. You can find more detailed information at www.edubuntu.org and at http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Edubuntu.
GCompris, Childsplay and Omnitux are educational game suites for children aged 2 to 10. The suites contain arithmetic, spelling, letter, word-finding and memory games. The goal is to promote learning through game playing.
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Gcompris contains more than 100 games and educational programs to help children learn in a fun way. There is a brief description of some of its key features below.
| Icon | Menu | Description |
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Discover the computer | Learn computer parts in different games. |
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Go to the discovery games | Discover colors, sounds, the world and more. |
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Puzzles | Learn logic, memory, puzzle, tossing, and patience. |
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Games panel | Pastimes like chatting, drawing games... |
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Mathematics | Learn how to count, how to calculate and about geometry. |
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English Learning | English alphabets, reading, hangman game and more. |
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Science activities | Learn electrical circuits, the water cycle, the operation of a lock... |
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Strategy games | Pastime like chess, tic-tac-toe, Oware and balls in a line. |
| Program | Descriptions | Program name | Screenshot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Celestia | Celestia is a program which allows you to move virtually through space and visit other planets, stars and galaxies. | celestia-gnome |  |
| Marble | Marble is a desktop globe. The program is similar to Google Earth. It is simple, yet very sophisticated and powerful. It supports a variety of other programs including OpenStreetMap and can reproduce it on its globe or on map view. | marble |  |
| Stellarium | Stellarium is a planetarium program. | stellarium |  |
| Program | Descriptions | Program name | Screenshot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dia | Dia is a diagram editor that provides a variety of options available to create attractive charts. Besides being able to place the objects scale-free, graphics can be included. | dia |  |
| FreeCAD | FreeCAD is a parametric 3D modeler made primarily to design real-life objects of any size. Parametric modeling allows you to easily modify your design by going back to your model history and changing its parameters. FreeCAD is open-source and highly customizable, scriptable and extensible. | FreeCAD |  |
| Freeplane | Freeplane is a program to create mind maps. | freeplane | |
| Gimp | GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, converting between different image formats, and more specialized tasks. [Update 20.04 LTS] | gimp |  |
| GnuPaint | GnuPaint is a simple paint program, which is based on xpaint. | gpaint |  |
| Inkscape | Inkscape is a vector-based graphics program like Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw or Xara X. The application provides a very user-friendly interface, which remains intuitive and clear in spite of its many functions. | inkscape |  |
| LibreCAD | LibreCad is a very powerful free program for two-dimensional CAD drawings. You can create various technical drawings such as plans for buildings, interiors, mechanical parts or schemas and diagrams. | librecad |  |
| Pencil | Pencil can create traditional hand-drawn animations (cartoons). It supports both bitmap and vector graphics. | pencil | |
| PLM | Practice how to program in Java, Python, Scala etc. | PLM |  |
| TkGate | TkGate is a digital circuit simulator. Manuals in ~/Public/manuals-ubuntu/English/TKGate_2_0 | TkGate |  |
| Tux Paint | Tux Paint is a simple drawing program for young children. Images can be painted using stamps, brushes etc. | tuxpaint |  |
| VYM | VYM (View Your Mind) is an easy-to-use application for creating mind maps. | vym |  |
| Program | Descriptions | Program name | Screenshot |
|---|---|---|---|
| GeoGebra | GeoGebra is a free geometry software with which the mathematical properties of geometry, algebra and calculus can be drawn. | geogebra |  |
| Jfractionlab | Educational program to practice fractions | Jfractionlab |  |
| KAlgebra | KAlgebra is a mathematical computer program. Its basis is the language of content MathML, which can be used to describe the structure of a formula. It can run arithmetic and logical operations and two-and three-dimensional graphs are shown. | kalgebra |  |
| KmPlot | KmPlot is a program to visualize mathematical functions. | kmplot |  |
| Lybniz | Lybniz is a simple program for visualizing mathematical functions. | lybniz | |
| Phyton | Phyton is an integral part of Linux / Ubuntu and is already pre-installed on all Labdoo computers. More on https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Python/, Editors https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Editoren/, Development environments (IDE) https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Entwicklungsumgebungen/ | phyton |  |
| TurtleArt | A LOGO-like tool for teaching programming | TurtleArt |  |
| Tux | Tux of Math Command, also known as TuxMath, is a math coach, with which basic arithmetic can be practiced. The gameplay is based on the arcade classic Missile Command. Tux must save cities by solving mathematical problems before the destruction. | tuxmath |  |
| Xabacus | Simulation of the ancient calculator | XAbacus |  |
| XaoS | XaoS is a program which creates fractal graphics in real time. | XAbacus |  |
| Program | Descriptions | Program name | Screenshot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Step | With Step you can learn and feel how physics works. You place some bodies on the scene, add some forces such as gravity or springs, then click "Simulate" and Step shows you how your scene will evolve according to the laws of physics. | step |  |
| Program | Descriptions | Program name | Screenshot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atomix | Atomix is a game to preassemble molecules from individual atoms. The gameplay is based on the AMIGA game Atomix. | atomix |  |
| biniax2 | Colorful Logic game with arcade and tactics modes. | atomix |  |
| Bumprace | BumpRace is a simple arcade game. You have to get from the start to the finish line without crashing into the blocks. | atomix |  |
| eBoard, Gnuchess, Crafty (chess) | eboard is a graphical chess program which can function as an interface to Internet chess servers such as FICS and to chess engines such as Crafty. Gnuchess and Crafty are the matching chess engines. | eboard |  |
| Frozen-Bubbles | FColorful 3D rendered penguin animations. The game idea is similar to Tetris. | frozen-bubbles |  |
| gbrainy | gbrainy is a platform to train memory, arithmetical and logical capabilities with many sorts of different exercises of many difficulty levels. | gbrainy |  |
| GCompris | GCompris is a collection of games for children. It combines a variety of games on various topics for different age groups. Thus, it contains for example GCompris Games on mathematics (small 1x1), colors, skill, working with computers etc. Recommended age 3 +. | gcompris |  |
| Kanagram | Kanagram is a word game in which it is necessary to solve a mystery. A word is decoded by clever conversion of the given letters. | kanagram |  |
| Kartoffelknülch | KTuberling is a program with several background images (tuberling, Egypt, the moon, Christmas, etc.) available so their designs can be modified. | ktuberling |  |
| Ltris | LTris is a very polished Tetris clone, which offers three types of games. The classic mode, a figures mode, where different figures appear every level, and a multiplayer mode. LTris is highly configurable through its menu system. | ltris |  |
| lbreakout2 | lbreakout2 is a game similar to the classic breakout, featuring a number of added graphical enhancements and effects. You control a paddle at the bottom of the playing-field, and you need to destroy the bricks at the top by bouncing balls against them. | ltris |  |
| minetest | Minetest is an open-world game, inspired by Minecraft. In a randomly generated world, raw materials are used to create tools and shape the environment. | minetest |  |
| Neverball | Neverball is simple: you have to collect all the coins using a ball, but you control the floor, not the ball... | ri-li |  |
| Ri-li | Ri-li is a skill game where you have to move a wooden train set by following the right course of different rail networks. The goal is to collect the different cars distributed throughout the level. | ri-li |  |
| Scratch | With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community. | sratch |  |
| Supertux | SuperTux is a classic 2D jump 'n run side-scroller game with a style similar to the original SuperMario games. | supertux |  |
| Program | Descriptions | Program name | Screenshot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parley | Parley is a vocabulary trainer. The vocabulary is extensive and the game offers a variety of settings around the goal of creating word lists that will allow you to learn. | parley |  |
| Anki | Anki is an alternative tool to Parley. Ready to use vocabulary and learning decks can be downloaded from here https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/ | anki |  |
| Program | Descriptions | Program name | Screenshot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tux Typing | Tux Typing helps children to learn how to write through playful touch. Recommended age 5 +. | tuxtype |  |
| Program | Descriptions | Program name | Screenshot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gtick, KMetronome | Gtick and Kmetronome are a software metronomes. | Gtick, KMetronome |  |
| Tux Guitar | Program to edit and view sheet music, especially for guitar. | Tux Guitar |  |
| Solfege | Ear training software to help you practice intervals, chords, scales and rhythms (manuals in Public/manuals-ubuntu) | Solfege |  |
| Piano Booster | Piano Booster is a new way to learn the piano just by playing a game. | Piano Booster |  |
| VMPK | Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard | VMPK |  |
| Program | Descriptions | Program name | Screenshot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Teams for Linux | [Update 20.04 LTS] Microsoft Teams for Linux is a client that includes chat, meetings, and video for home learning. The service is integrated into the Office 365 Office suite with Microsoft Office and Skype. Teams is part of the Labdoo image for cloning and was included in 2020, during the corona crisis, to make home schooling easier since many schools use Teams for distributed lessons. | Microsoft Teams for Linux |  |
| Skype | [Update 20.04 LTS] Microsoft Skype has been preinstalled on Labdoo computers since the release of 20.04 LTS. Skype also provides instant messaging services. Users can text, send videos, voice messages and images. Skype also allows video conference calls. | Skype |  |
| LibreOffice Suite | LibreOffice is a powerful office suite; its clean interface and powerful tools allow you to unleash your creativity and grow your productivity. LibreOffice embeds several applications that make it the most powerful, free and open-source office suite on the market: Writer, the word processor; Calc, the spreadsheet application; Impress, the presentation engine; Draw, our drawing and flowcharting application; Base, our database and database frontend; and Math, for mathematical equations. | LibreOffice Suite |  |
| LibreOffice Writer | Writer has all the features you need from a modern, full-featured word processing and desktop publishing tool. It's simple enough for a quick memo, but powerful enough to create complete books with contents, diagrams, indexes, and more. Feel free to concentrate on your message, while Writer will make it look great. | writer |  |
| LibreOffice Calc | Calc is the spreadsheet program you've always needed. Newcomers find it intuitive and easy to learn. Professional data miners and number crunchers will appreciate the comprehensive range of advanced functions. Wizards can guide you through choosing and using a comprehensive range of advanced spreadsheet functions. You can also download templates from the LibreOffice template repository, for ready-made spreadsheet solutions. | calc |  |
| LibreOffice Impress | Impress is a truly outstanding tool for creating effective multimedia presentations. Presentation, edition and creation is flexible, thanks to different editing and view modes: Normal (for general editing), Outline (for organizing and outlining your text content), Notes (for viewing and editing the notes attached to a slide), Handout (for producing paper-based material), and Slide Sorter (for a thumbnail sheet view that lets you quickly locate and order your slides). | impress |  |
| LibreOffice Draw | Draw lets you produce anything from a quick sketch to a complex plan, and gives you the means to communicate with graphics and diagrams. With a maximum page size of 300cm by 300cm, Draw is an excellent package for producing technical drawings, general posters, etc. Draw allows you to manipulate graphical objects, group them, crop them, use objects in 3D and much more. | draw |  |
| LibreOffice Base | Base is a full-featured desktop database front end, designed to meet the needs of a broad array of users. But Base also caters to power users and enterprise requirements, and provides native-support drivers for some of the most widely employed multi-user database engines: MySQL/MariaDB, Adabas D, MS Access and PostgreSQL. In addition, the built-in support for JDBC- and ODBC-standard drivers allows you to connect to virtually any other existing database engine as well. | base |  |
| LibreOffice Math | Math is the LibreOffice suite's formula editor, that can be invoked in your text documents, spreadsheets, presentations and drawings, to enable you to insert perfectly formatted mathematical and scientific formulas. Your formulas can include a wide range of elements, from fractions, terms with exponents and indices, integrals, and mathematical functions, to inequalities, systems of equations, and matrices. | math |  |
| Firefox | Firefox Internet Browser is also useful to read local, off-line educational content. Firefox is the default browser. | firefox |  |
| Netsurf | Fast and easy to use internet browser | netsurf |  |
| pdf Split and Merge | PDFsam is our free and open source desktop application to split, merge, extract pages, rotate and mix PDF files. | pdfsam |  |
| pdf shuffler | PDF-Shuffler helps the user to merge or split PDF documents and rotate, crop and rearrange their pages using an interactive and intuitive graphical interface. | pdfshuffler |  |
| Thunderbird | [Update 20.04 LTS] Mozilla Thunderbird is a free and open-source[11] cross-platform email client, news client, RSS, and chat client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. Thunderbird is an email, newsgroup, news feed, and chat (XMPP, IRC, Twitter) client. The vanilla version was not originally a personal information manager (PIM). However, the Mozilla Lightning extension, which is now installed by default, adds PIM functionality. Additional features, if needed, are often available via other extensions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Thunderbird | Thunderbird |  |
Labdoo computers come with preinstalled programs to read offline content, such as Kiwix. It allows you to access offline wikis and learning content without being connected to the Internet. Depending on the language, availability and size of the hard drive, Labdoo will have already preinstalled some learning content. Using the tools a lot of additional OER - Open Educational Resources, license-free learning content can be downloaded in different languages.
The programs mentioned below are already preinstalled on "cloned" Labdoo computers, mostly in the language of the target country. There may be more or less content, depending on the size of the disk-drive. They can be found:
- locally on a Labdoo computer in the folder /home/labdoo/Public
- online on the server of the tools developer
- on our FTP server http://ftp.labdoo.org/download/install-disk/wiki-archive/
| Program | Descriptions | Program name | Screenshot |
|---|---|---|---|
| kiwix (since end of 2020) | Since end of 2020, cloned IT donations are coming with the Kiwix tool. In the folder /home/labdoo/Public/kiwix/wikis you will find preinstalled learning content (zim and meta files). Further learning content can be downloaded from the web. Note: All users these saved in the aforementioned folder, but these new folders must be opened once or else theis content will not appear on the list. To activate new contents for another user, click on the folder symbol at the upper right corner, navigate to the above folder and click on the content to activate it. A great feature of Kiwix - if you click on the 3 dots (...) in the upper right corner, you can start the Kiwix server. An IP address is displayed and it can be used by other computers, cell phones or tablets to get connected, read the learning content on their devices and learn using it. |
kiwix |  |
| kiwix Add-On for Firefox (since end of 2020) | The preinstalled Kiwix add-on in Firefox will display zim archives for Kiwix. This allows you to access the zim archives with learning content in the folder /home/labdoo/Public/kiwix/wikis. However, this browser extension does not offer all the functions of the Kiwix app; the browser plug-in is still in beta phase. | kiwix plug-in Firefox | |
| Xowa (until end of 2020) | Until the end of 2020, Labdoo used Xowa as a tool to display offline wikis http://xowa.org/. Since then, Xowa was replaced by Kiwix to clone images. If you want to continue using Xowa, you can install it, set it up manually and load wikis from the Xowa server yourself. Labdoo also removed the Xowa archives from its FTP server at the end of 2020. Instead, the most common zim archives for Kiwix are still available on our FTP server. |
xowa |  |
| Kolibri | Another tool for offline content is Kolibri, based on mySQL database. It comes preinstalled, but not configurated. Download content from: https://catalog.learningequality.org/#/public |
kolibri |  |
| Program | Descriptions | Program name | Screenshot |
|---|---|---|---|
| alsamixer | The program alsamixer is a tool to access all ALSA settings provided for the sound card. Frequent settings, which cannot be directly accessed with the X-user interface, are deactivated or down-regulated. With Alsamixer you can quickly find and activate these settings. | alsamixer |  |
| calibre | Calibre is a cross platform program to manage and convert e-books | calibre |  |
| Laby | Laby is a program to learn the programming in OCaml, Python, Lua, Ruby, Prolog, C or Java. An ant has to be moved safely through a maze without stepping into spider webs or other traps. | laby |  |
| Nanny | Nanny Parental Control is an application to monitor and control what children are allowed to do on the PC. | nanny |  |
| Kino | Kino is a simple video editor for GNU / Linux, which also offers the ability to directly program the videos from the camcorder to take screenshots ("capture"). | kino |  |
| ScolaSync | Graphic tool to copy data to or from a set of USB storage media | ScolaSync |  |
| Scribus | Scribus is a desktop publishing program. It is used to create professional layouts, and it is similar to Adobe PageMaker, QuarkXPress or Adobe InDesign. | scribus |  |
| ARandR | ARandR is a tool to configurate the monitor settings, e.g., a second monitor or a Beamer. | ARandR |  |
| VLC | VLC is a complete media player that supports almost all media files, audio CDs, DVDs and more. | vlc |  |
| guvcview | guvcview / GTK+ UVC Viewer allows you to control webcams that are supported by the UVC or GSPCA / SPCA5xx driver. The software offers, among other things: Image control, sound recording (.pcm, .mp2 ...), video recording (.avi, .mkv ...) and image recording in various formats (.jpg, .png, .bmp and .raw). The supported formats depend on the webcam used. | guvcview |  |
| cheese | Cheese is a webcam application that is similar to Photo Booth on Mac OS X. Images or videos from the webcam can be provided with various filters and saved. A countdown counts down until the image is created so that you can say ‘Cheeeeese’ in good time. The saved images or videos can then be sent directly by e-mail or transferred to other applications. | cheese |  |
| Audacity | Audacity is a free, open-source and easy-to-use graphical audio editor and recorder. | audacity |  |
| KRDC | KRDC is a VNC client / desktop sharing application, compatible with RDC Remote Desktop for Windows. A remote computer can be operated using VNC. The screen content of another computer is displayed on the local computer. Mouse and keyboard entries are sent back from the local computer (here the client, also called the viewer) to the remote computer (the VNC server runs on the host). | krdc |  |
| FileZilla | FileZilla is a convenient and fast FTP and SFTP client with a wide range of options. Among other things, it supports the resumption of cancelled data transfers, the management of various FTP sites, SSL, drag+drop and much more. | FileZilla |  |
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Linux doesn’t normally need a virus scanner due to the Linux security concept. There are very few (not to say - none) viruses in Linux desktop. Nevertheless, some companies still offer virus scanner for extra security, for example to protect the file server being used by Windows clients.
Some edoovillages also request a tool to be able to scan a USB drive and remove any possible virus from it. ClamAv is recommended for this purpose (ClamAV is automatically installed if you are using the installation scripts or cloning images).
To serve the purpose, we recommend the license free, open-source virus scanner called ClamAV
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ClamAV (You can use ClamTK to start the program).
More modules and the virus signatures may need to be installed in order to run the program smoothly. Therefore, please run either the installation script for Labdoo FTP site ( http://ftp.labdoo.org/download/install-disk/installskripts/installscript... ) or use the cloning images since all the programs are already preinstalled in the images.
Parts of this wiki content is based on text and graphics taken from www.edubuntu.org and http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Edubunt